The Arcana Chronicles 5: The Dark Calling

"Of course I do. I want to know why she took such a turn for the worse on the one night I left the castle."

"She'd been steadily declining." He turned to Aric. "You recall her condition when she first came here. You told me you'd feared she wouldn't survive the journey. I kept her alive for months more. When she passed, it was a mercy."

Though Aric had in fact found her in dire straits, I demanded of Paul, "Did you show her mercy?"

Meeting my eyes, he solemnly said, "I would never hurt anyone under my care. Never."

He was so freaking believable. So why didn't I buy any of this?

Aric gazed down at my face. "Let us leave and discuss things."

Paul stood, addressing him: "Sir, you've always been fair to me. What do you want me to do? How can I make this right? I need to make this right."

God, he was good. Aric looked sympathetic. Not me. The tiny hairs on my nape rose. This is all an act.

"My wife and I will consider the situation at length. In the meantime, you'll be confined to your quarters."

My head whipped around. "What?" Not good enough. Aric had said he'd keep Paul locked up until I decided his fate. I'd decided.

Paul told me, "You've been through so much, Evie. If you need me to stay sequestered to feel comfortable, then I'll gladly do it."

Baring my claws, I said, "I need you out of our lives--"

Aric took my arm and squired me outside, then shut the door behind him. "I'll install a lock on this after I escort you back."

"Locking him up won't be enough! If he'll do this, what else is he capable of?"

"Sieva, I cannot fathom any motive for his actions."

"What if he is crazy?"

"What do you wish me to do? Execute someone for mental illness? After the apocalypse?"

I didn't want Aric to kill someone he believed was innocent or sick, but . . . "I know he's acting. I sense malice in him."

After a moment, Aric gave me a grave nod. "Then I will exile him. Once the blizzard passes."

I ground my molars. "You expect me to wait for the weather to break?"

"It would be a death sentence otherwise. How dangerous can he be, jailed in his room? What will a couple of days hurt?"

"What will they help? If you believed me, you would cut him down!" Inhaling for calm, I said, "I can't wrap my head around this. My husband, the one who applauded my judgment, is doubting me." I turned back toward our wing.

In the den, Lark and Finn both sat up. "Well?"

I put my hands on my hips. "Don't you already know, Lark?"

She shrugged without shame. Naturally, she'd used one of her creatures to spy on my confrontation. "What if Paul did get everything mixed up back then? This Arcana stuff would be a lot for any mortal to take in. Just a few months ago, he was in a coal bin, hiding from a rampaging troll." Ogen.

"You want someone that messed-up to do surgery on your boyfriend?"

"Paul sounds good now," she said. "Good enough to fix Finn's leg."

I stared the Magician down. "Don't let him touch you. Please don't."

Eyes wide, he shook his head. "Wasn't gonna."

I looked from him to Lark. "Tell me you aren't trusting one of Paul's shots for protection."

Finn's face turned red. Lark glared.

Clearing his throat, Aric said, "Paul will be exiled once the weather clears. In the meantime, do not speak to him. Lark, you'll bring him meals and take over his duties."

She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. Her gaze landed on me, her eyes tinged red.

Like a warning light.

_______________

Later that night, Aric and I lay side by side, staring at the ceiling in silence. The blizzard had strengthened, winds howling over the castle. Lightning flashed every couple of seconds.

Inside, flames crackled in the fireplace and warmth emanated from his skin. I gazed over at his flawless profile.

Before we'd gone to bed, I'd found the wedding ring I'd made him, still in my coat pocket. A startling thought had arisen: I'm glad I didn't give this to him. I'd hidden it in a drawer beside the red ribbon Jack had saved from before the Flash. That keepsake had survived even my run-in with Sol and Zara.

Aric turned to face me and rasped, "Talk to me." As I struggled to marshal all the thoughts swirling in my head, he said, "We agreed that if either of us needed something out of this relationship, we should talk about it."

"Can you not understand how trapped I feel right now? Not only have I had this pregnancy forced on me--against my will--I have to live in the same place with the asshole who betrayed me."

In addition to wanting revenge against Richter, I'd come up with four new missions: to find out if Jack lived, to somehow strengthen my powers, to uncover proof that Paul had harmed my grandmother, and to get him gone.

"I'm trying to protect you."

"How?"

"By making sure nothing is done that cannot be undone. You've never been pregnant before--all of this is new to us--so let's proceed with caution."

Was he hinting that my judgment might be off because I was knocked up? When would my judgment ever be considered on? "Why won't you even look at the notes I made?" Earlier, I'd written down everything I could remember Gran saying. To be fair, I didn't understand the majority of it, but some fragments were beginning to make an eerie kind of sense.

Aric hadn't even glanced at them. "Because I recall her vehemently accusing me of killing her. In light of that, I must discount her other statements."

"Maybe she confused Paul's actions with yours, or thought you'd ordered him to harm her." On the day she died, she'd told me, "He's murdering your last blood relative. A rat! The agent of Death. A salamander. Noon serpents in the shadow. Midnight takes my life!" What if she'd considered Paul to be Death's agent?

"Are you accusing Paul of cold-blooded murder?" Aric asked. "Even though he's never demonstrated a hint of anything sinister? Again and again, he's behaved with compassion and loyalty. Malice on his part isn't logical. It doesn't make sense."

"But confusion on my part does?"

Changing the subject, Aric said, "Are we not to talk about our baby?"

"The li'l Bagger I'm carrying?" Sol had told me that his zombies transmitted a 'radiation-based mutation.' That couldn't be good.

"Our child will be mortal or Arcana. No more, no less. I've lived a long time, and I feel that all will be well." He reached for my belly. "I am asking you to trust me."

I brushed his hand away. "You have lived a long time. You've garnered a lot of experience. But not in this area." My head started to hurt. When would Matthew contact me again? Where are you?

For the hundredth time, I replayed my last exchange with him. Through our spotty telepathic link, he'd whispered in my mind . . . .

--Have a secret. He doesn't want me to tell you.--

My nose had been bleeding, my temples pounding. I'd mentally shouted, Get out of my head, Fool! He'd killed me in the first game, and he'd let Jack die. How dare he contact me!

He'd told me to listen. Then I'd heard Jack's voice: --"What kind of danger is she in? Damn it, tell me! What's coming, coo-yon?"--

I'd whimpered. Jack??? Is that you? He'd sounded so close. Though I'd called for them, no one had answered, and I'd blacked out.

Aric narrowed his amber eyes. "There's something you're not telling me."

Until he trusted me and my memories, I wouldn't tell him about the message. "You, Lark, and Paul keep talking about how mixed-up I was when Gran was dying, that my head must not have been right."

"You'd suffered through so much, love."

"During that exact time, I made a big decision--to be with you. To be your wife. Maybe I really was mixed-up. Maybe I shouldn't have made any far-reaching decisions in that frame of mind."

His lips parted. "Sieva . . ."

"We either trust both my memory and my judgment, or we distrust both. What will it be?" When he didn't answer, I turned over on my side, giving him my back.

"Jack would believe me."

I could feel Aric's gaze lingering on me. His troubled sigh made my chest tighten.

3

Day 514 A.F.

"A baby on the way--how delightful." A stream of water had just slicked across the ceiling of the (plant) nursery, then descended in front of my face as a plume of liquid.

Circe.